Ancient & Medieval Philosophy: Thinkers & Concepts
Ancient Philosophy
The first philosophers, who appeared in Greece in the sixth century BC, tried to establish a principle (archē) from which all reality originates. The archē is singular for monists and multiple for pluralists.
Philosophy from the colonies moved to Athens in the mid-fifth century BC. Here, the Sophists and Socrates focused on humanity and the city (polis), including concepts like liberty, political equality, and law.
The Sophists believed that both moral and legal standards of the
Read MoreLogical Fallacies and Core Legal Principles
Understanding Logical Fallacies
Fallacy of Composition
The Fallacy of Composition occurs when it is incorrectly assumed that what is true for individual parts of a whole is also true for the whole itself. For example:
The numbers 2 and 5 are components of the number 7.
The number 2 is even, and the number 5 is odd.
Therefore, the number 7 is both even and odd.
(This illustrates applying properties of parts—evenness of 2, oddness of 5—incorrectly to the whole, 7.)
Fallacy of Division
The Fallacy of Division
Read MoreNietzsche’s Radical Philosophy: Values, Reality, Becoming
Unnatural Morality
Nietzsche believes morality is unnatural because it opposes life and its inherent nature. He equates the strength of life with the strength of instincts, which are manifested as passions. This natural morality is healthy, yet we are taught an alternative, unnatural morality. This unnatural morality often conceives God as a condemnation or criticism of life itself. Nietzsche critiques Platonism for positing ideas in a separate realm, detached from this world. For Nietzsche, life
Read MoreNietzsche: Truth, Morality, and the Death of God
Nietzsche on Truth and Knowledge
The classical conception of truth claims that the world has a fixed structure and that its objective truth is the correspondence of a proposition with reality. Nietzsche rejects this conception. According to him, there is no truth, only different interpretations. The unique and objective truth is an invention of the past. The language used to express thought is a convention invented by humankind. Therefore, objective truth does not exist. The knowledge we call true
Read MoreMetaphysics: Core Concepts, Study Areas, and Critiques
Understanding Metaphysics
Metaphysics has been a central focus of philosophical activity and has been defined in various ways throughout its history. Broadly, it refers to a philosophical analysis of the basic structures of reality. It can also encompass the study of God and the study of being. Two primary interpretations or aspects are often distinguished:
1. Metaphysics as the Study of Transphysical Reality (Theology)
This interpretation refers to the “trans-physical” or “hyperphysical”—realities
Read MoreNietzsche’s Hammer: Critiquing Western Philosophy
Nietzsche’s Critique of Western Thought
Nietzsche’s thought represents the most stringent and radical critique of the entire Western philosophical and cultural tradition. His ‘philosophizing with a hammer’ leaves none of the fundamental elements of that tradition intact: ontological, epistemological, religious, moral, and so on.
Platonism: Source of Decadent Culture
Nietzsche denounces Platonism as the source of all decadent, impoverished, and servile Western culture. This ‘germ,’ he argues, was adopted
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